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Rebuilt Market Reviews - Brakes Market: Rebuilders And Suppliers Chant The Same Mantra

By Tom Hoover

When it comes to current trends in the brake rebuilding market, rebuilders and suppliers chant the same mantra - "price" and "quality." Both are the primary forces driving parts and equipment suppliers' and rebuilders' business.
Consumers demand the best performing materials, but of course, at the lowest possible price. Unfortunately, say many rebuilders and their suppliers, an uneducated public seems to believe that most product is "good enough" for their vehicle simply because it's on a jobber's shelf or in an installer's shop.
"The market appears to be driven by price more than anything right now," observed Joe Rhodes, president of Util Automotive, Inc., Conyers, GA. "Everyone is having conversations regarding quality, but when the rubber hits the road, I believe it goes toward price rather than quality.
"Everyone in the industry is making every attempt to up-sell to a quality piece of material," continued Rhodes. "But what it boils down to is compromises (in quality) are made because of pricing pressure."
Rhodes doesn't believe most of the really important issues in the brake market are being adequately dealt with. These issues, from his perspective, include:

• Quality shim materials;
• Use of quality steel;
• The way the steel is blanked; and,
• The type of friction material being used.

Rhodes relates an all-too-familiar story about a jobber's customer who bickered with the counterman about spending more than $6.95 for a set of disc pads. He didn't want to spend the few extra dollars for better quality. Yet, he didn't mind spending $7.95 on a set of fuzzy dice for the rear view mirror before he walked out of the store.
"There's something wrong there," said Rhodes. "Our values are misplaced. The whole purchasing decision in American society has boiled down to, 'How cheap can I get it?' We in the aftermarket haven't been able to figure out how to give people the best dollar value, and still address all the issues that need to be addressed, e.g., noise, friction material quality, vehicle specific lining and so on, not to mention an adequate profit margin."
Kent Van Slambrook, sales manager for Performance Friction of Clover, SC, echoes Rhodes' concern for quality.
"One thing we all have to look at," said Van Slambrook, is 'what type of quality products are rebuilders and the friction manufacturer putting in the box?' Do they actually meet any requirements that exist? Every vehicle has an FMBSS105 test attached to it. It's a safe bet that the (replacement) friction material out there right now does not meet those requirements.
"It's cost prohibitive to make that happen, because the only thing that is driving the market right now is price," Van Slambrook added. "It's not quality. It's not safety regulations. When customers walk into their local jobber, installer or retailer, they expect that whatever brake they put down on the counter will stop their vehicle. And, they assume it is going to stop their vehicle in a certain distance, as specified in the 105 test. That's where education and some type of (industry effort) needs to occur. We need to understand that safety is involved." And so, too, does the vehicle owner, said Van Slambrook.

Is education the answer?

Education on the part of the consumer and the installer is one area that Dick Markano, president of Conklin Equipment Co., Fallbrook, CA, believes can help address the quality concerns that many have. He believes a great deal of information needs to be provided so rebuilders will have a reference point when rebuilding a quality brake.
After all, when a brake shoe core has been taken off a car and shipped across the country in the back of a truck, it may become distorted. Or, the shoe may already have been distorted through use on the vehicle. The rebuilder has to make sure these are straightened.
According to Markano, the arc of the shoe is becoming more critical, as is the fit between the lining and the shoe. Rebuilders need to be able to guarantee the shoe has the right contour and the right radius, so that it matches the underside of the lining when it's bonded. And in order to provide that higher quality, rebuilders are demanding more from their suppliers.
"They're making demands on us to provide equipment to do this," says Markano. "But, when you grind a brake shoe, to what arc do you grind it? Everybody knows from the Friction Materials Standards Institute (FMSI) catalog that a 180 mm shoe goes into a 180 mm drum. But does that mean you grind it to a specific undersize or do you make it exactly the same?
"The OEM has set a specification that is generally not available to the rebuilder - although I see a trend developing where more of this dimensional information is becoming available. The bottom line is that when the rebuilder straightens the brake shoe prior to relining it, he should straighten it to some standard. That standard, if adhered to, will improve the quality of the brake."
Some feel that one way to ensure that quality products are being installed might be to take some of the decision out of the hands of consumers, for example, by pushing the use of loaded calipers. These "pre-assembled" units make installation easier and give installers more control over the parts put on the disc brakes. And, loaded calipers don't appear to have quite the price pressure problems that individual brake shoes and disc pads are under.

If the pad fits

With pads increasingly outselling shoes, as much as 20 to 1 by some reports, one way to address quality is learning to select the right pad for the right vehicle. Several major rebuilders are now beginning to offer application-specific brakes.
"We've gone application specific, with many different friction materials for many different platforms," explained Steve Suber, operations manager for EIS' Manila, AR, facilities, and also incoming Automotive Parts Rebuilders Association (APRA) chairman.
"Most people realize there's no single friction material that covers the full spectrum of cars and light trucks out there today. You have to be application specific because of rear wheel drives, front wheel drives and the new generation glide vehicles (which are all front wheel drive, very sleek and aerodynamic). A lot of things have changed from the vehicles of years past."
Performance Friction's Van Slambrook agrees, noting that his company has always kept an eye on specific applications. "We've held to that concept all along," he said. "We actually do on-vehicle testing before we let a product go to market. We tweak compounds, etc., for a particular chassis. Some manufacturers put the same material on a one-ton chassis that they use on a light car. You can't do that. Just because the manufacturer says you can do it doesn't mean you really can."
Wagner Brake Products is an example of another company involved with producing application specific brakes. Its new ThermoQuiet LT™ disc brake pads have been specifically engineered for the light truck, minivan and sport utility vehicle market. The pad uses a patented, integrally molded insulator for improved noise damping. The friction material is not only molded to the face of the steel backing plate, but also extruded through the plate to form the insulator on the back.
Abex Friction Products, also under the Cooper Industries umbrella, developed the friction formulation and pad design. Each of the present 85 to 90 available part numbers has been designed specifically for the vehicle application it is sold for.

ABS: rebuild or not

Perhaps the most specific application concerns are on ABS braking systems. When newer designs filter into the rebuilder market, there is always a learning curve, as well as a measure of reluctance to begin rebuilding them. Yet, many rebuilders have prepared, and are continuing to prepare, for what will inevitably be the future of brake rebuilding.
At the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, NY, a year-long study of rebuilding ABS systems is drawing to an end. "There is an opportunity in ABS for rebuilders," says Dr. Nabil Nasr, associate professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering for RIT. "But it is critical that rebuilders develop proper testing of the system once they're (ABS parts) rebuilt. They also need to gain expertise in electronics.
"One of the problems is on the reverse engineering side, actually knowing and understanding what you need to test," said Nasr. "Rebuilders need to understand how the whole ABS system works versus the standard brake system they used to work with." As is true in most other product lines, there can be variations of the same basic model.
"In doing our research, we visited some companies that actually rebuilt some (ABS) units," says Nasr. "Unfortunately the rebuilt units didn't work. They looked great. They cleaned them up right. They outsourced many components that they had to replace. But functionally the units didn't work properly.
"It could be a combined problem, but electronics is definitely one of the reasons they didn't work." Although Nasr says he is sure ABS systems can be rebuilt, he admits that it's far from being a known science at this point.
One rebuilder who says he is having some success rebuilding ABS is John Stuart Power Brake Co. Ltd., Stoney Creek, Ontario. According to Stuart Power's operations manager, Brent Walker, the company simply decided to purchase some ABS systems and start disassembling them. Trial and error has enhanced its knowledge base considerably.
"We brought a couple of units in and disassembled them just to see what exactly they contained, and what was part-and-parcel of the whole thing," says Walker. "Basically from there we learned it ourselves. It gave us a ground base to start from."
Stuart Power got involved with ABS because the company saw it as the braking system of the future, and as an immediate niche market opportunity, though it only accounts for about 1% of the company's present sales. Echoing Nasr, Walker agrees that testing and a good understanding of electronics is important to properly rebuilding ABS.
"The testing procedure is something we tried to develop right off the bat, because there's no point in building something you can't test," said Walker. "We've had two or three versions of testers and we're actually working on another version of a better tester. It's not just better from an accuracy standpoint; it's something that's physically easier to work with - as far as holding the various units and the ease of reaching fittings and making connections.
The test system sends power to the ABS unit, simulating the way it would work on the vehicle. Then, fittings are connected to the hose ports and the gauges are snapped on. "We look for various pressures," he explains. "We time the run-up on the pump to the accumulator. We pump it down to check that the accumulator is holding at the proper amount of pressure. We physically pump it down to zero pressure, and read it with gauges.
"I find, even now, we're still learning. Every unit that comes in, even those we've seen before, can be different than the previous one. It's a constant learning process. You can't say, 'I know ABS inside and out.' You no sooner say that, than someone comes in with a '96 Blazer - and it's different."
But Stuart Power is unique. In most cases, the slow pace at which most rebuilders are approaching ABS is symptomatic of how rebuilders have always approached new products. "ABS is like any new technology," says Dave Aument, president of Aument Brake & Supply, Inc., Lancaster, PA. "When disc brakes first came out, we had a bunch of guys that didn't even want to do them. And now it's common place. We do ABS clinics probably every year. And our hydraulics company has a really nice set of reference manuals that we sell quite a few sets of."

Friction materials

While ABS may be the braking system of the future, many of tomorrow's friction materials are already on the market. When the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the ban on asbestos in 1991, there was a collective sigh of relief throughout the brake industry - both OEM and rebuilder. However, this didn't open the flood gates for asbestos products. Instead, manufacturers and suppliers continued to develop new friction formulations for today's vehicle braking systems.
According to Performance Friction's Van Slambrook, carbon metallics were originally introduced because of the possible asbestos ban. They are now winning a growing audience of admirers. "The hot ticket right now on the market is integrally molded carbon metallic," says Walker. "It dissipates heat better than a pure metallic and it's gentler on the rotor surface. I think one manufacturer claims up to 20% less rotor wear with a carbon metallic, as opposed to a regular metallic. And the big thing now is 'no squeal, no squeak,' where the brakes also perform much better than asbestos."
While asbestos and it's related legislation may have helped spur manufacturers towards newer friction formulations, the legal issues don't seem to be going away. "Legislative issues are some of the biggest concerns for rebuilders," said EIS' Suber. "For example, there are people claiming copper in aftermarket pads is causing estuary (water) contamination. There's a lot of concern from government regulators about what we have in our brake parts. Aftermarket associations must be proactive, and we (APRA) are. We need to address all the issues because, if we don't, we may be put out of business by misguided bureaucrats."
Says Mike Conlon, Washington legal counsel for APRA, and a regular columnist for Automotive Rebuilder, "When it comes to asbestos in brakes, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has basically decided to go with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations. EPA has indicated that it is looking at brake repair and service from a non-asbestos standpoint." Conlon says EPA is looking to see if nonasbestos replacement materials pose any dangers.
"The thing everyone should be aware of is that some of these replacements for asbestos may have some additional toxicity problems that EPA may look at in the future," said Conlon. "For that reason, we have been trying to get the lining and friction manufacturers to permanently mark their lining in some way. That way we'll know what the material is after it's used, not just if it's asbestos or non-asbestos. So if, say five years from now, EPA says you have to dispose of semi-metallics in a certain way, then we would have the ability to do that without having to dispose of all friction material that way."
Tagging is being considered by many manufacturers. One such company is VAAPO, Inc., in Millers Tavern, VA. "The technique we're currently looking at is to put the tag on brake pads in a protected area, an area where it would not be worn off by the natural wear of the pad," explains Richard Cross, VAAPO's president. "The marking would survive for the life of the pad, assuming you didn't wear 100% of the material away. And since it would not be in the mix at all, there's no environmental concern from that standpoint."
VAAPO is trying to develop a way to leave a marker that would identify the pad as asbestos or non-asbestos. The technique could also be used to mark lead or other materials. "The tags we're looking at would glow under an ultraviolet lamp: green if it's non-asbestos, orange-red if it contained asbestos. This is primarily aimed at the installer market, where they have a material disposal issue," says Cross. "They would be able to pass these parts underneath a stationary lamp or use a hand-held lamp to flash at the parts while they were still on the car, to determine how to handle the pads."
At this point, the company is only experimenting with tags. It has not yet sold any pads with them. But if a customer wanted them, Cross said they could speed up the research and have the tagged pads on the market quickly.
And while tagging materials may help in properly handling them, rebuilders come back to the all-important issue of cost. Tagging would increase the price of the materials, something that would not be a welcome event in an already price competitive marketplace.
Still another dilemma facing rebuilders is integrally molded (IM) brakes. "The difficulty is that most of the OE brakes are integrally molded," said Gil Laycock, executive director of FMSI. "Rebuilders don't really have the facilities or capabilities to make IM replacement parts. Therefore, they have to make some sort of an adaptation of a rivet pattern for IM original equipment.
"Basically, a number of steel suppliers have established rivet patterns, and in some instances with input from the friction manufacturer, for IM parts. So, as long as rebuilders can continue to create rivet patterns for OE applications, and as long as the parts are viable, working parts, I don't think there's a problem. But if two companies work on the same part independently and come up with different rivet patterns, it does cause confusion."
At Performance Friction, Van Slambrook said probably 95% of the new contracts his company has been in competition for have been for IM only. There was not an option for a riveted version. He also believes that in five to 10 years, maybe sooner, the market will be all IM.
"The OE market is going more and more to the integrally molded disc brake pad where those cannot be rebuilt," said Van Slambrook. "The days of riveting a puck onto a backplate are slowly shrinking. It means rebuilders have to change their perspective and change their strategies. For example, they may have to align themselves with a company that makes the IM pads."

When is too many enough?

Tagged or not, IM or not, there is little question that the number of parts is still increasing in the aftermarket. It sometimes seems like there is a daily onslaught of new numbers - parts are re-engineered, a bolt is changed, a new hole added, or an old one deleted.

New part numbers continue to arrive on the market, said FMSI's Laycock. "It has tapered off a little bit, but that varies from model year to model year," he said. "We are continuing to see new part numbers added at a fairly good pace. When the manufacturers do redesigns, when they start downsizing and reworking front wheel drive, etc., they do a fairly complete job re-doing the brake systems. There's less and less consolidation opportunities all the time."
As an example, Laycock mentions the Nissan Sentra of a couple years ago. It had one set of front brakes for the 1.6L, a different set for the 2.0L, and a third set for the 2.0L with ABS. On the rear of that same vehicle, there was a drum brake and two different disc brake options.
While this can prove to be a headache for the rebuilding industry, keeping up with the numbers comes with the turf. "I don't think part number proliferation is a problem," says EIS' Suber. "There's still quite a bit of consolidation out there. But there are quite a variety of new numbers coming on-board every year. If you want to cover 100% of the applications, you'll need to have quite an inventory. But that's in any business, or any product line."
Util's Rhodes agrees, noting that the aftermarket has a chameleon-like quality when it comes to handling new challenges. "I really believe the market has adapted to it," said Rhodes of the proliferation of part numbers. "Yes, it's overwhelming, but I believe the industry has handled it quite well. In fact, I think the brake industry has handled it better than most."
Calipers experience a little bit of lag time because of the high cost of the casting," Rhodes continued. "But when it comes to replacement disc plates, steel stamping, linings, the shoe stampings, etc., it's only a short period of time before supplies are filled. In fact, we put more material into the market in new numbers than can be consumed."

Big versus small

While part numbers may be increasing, smaller rebuilders are under assault as larger companies consume ever greater portions of the market. With many large retail outlets and installers, the brake rebuilding industry is finding itself breaking into two primary segments: the big rebuilders who can fill the demands of national chains and large volume accounts, and the smaller companies that are finding their strength in niche markets.
"Unfortunately, we're getting a considerable disparity between the small local rebuilder and the large rebuilders," says Conklin Equipment's Markano. "It's becoming increasingly difficult for the small local rebuilder to compete.
"Years ago there were virtually hundreds of rebuilders across the United States. Currently, a large proportion of the shoes are sold through very few rebuilders. That creates a problem for the little guy. So he'll find his niche in local markets - in short runs and special things, more oddball stuff, forklifts and industrial applications, for example."
Focusing on niche markets and competing where the opportunities present themselves is the way all rebuilders have always survived. "I think there's always a market for the small guys," said Stuart Power's Walker. "If you sent a caliper into one of the big rebuilders, say a special caliper off a '67 Jag, it could take three or four weeks. We can do it in three or four hours. That's an advantage you have when you're small."
So, as always, it all comes back to the basics. By continuing to focus on quality and service, rebuilders both large and small say they expect to continue to provide valuable products and services to the marketplace, no matter how many parts they have to stock, no matter how much technology changes the face of the rebuilding process.